NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION OF FINGER JOINT STRENGTH

CURRENTLY, NO METHOD EXISTS WHICH CAN RELIABLY DETERMINE THE TENSILE STRENGTH OF AN ADHESIVE-BONDED FINGER JOINT USING NONDESTRUCTIVE PROCEDURES ONLY. THE USE OF ACOUSTO-ULTRASONIC NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION WILL BE INVESTIGATED FOR THE FEASIBILITY OF PROVIDING STRESS WAVE PARAMETERS WHICH CAN BE CORRELATED WITH JOINT TENSILE STRENGTH TO DEVELOP PREDICTIVE EQUATIONS. THE PROCEDURE WILL FOCUS ON DELIVERING BROADBAND FREQUENCY PULSES ACROSS THE FINGER JOINT AND CONDUCTING TIME SERIES AND SPECTRAL ANALYSIS ON THE RESULTING STRESS WAVE. STRESS WAVE PARAMETERS WILL BE CORRELATED TO THE RESULTS OF DESTRUCTIVE TENSION TESTS USING LINEAR AND NONLINEAR REGRESSION TECHNIQUES TO DEVELOP A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR PREDICTING INDIVIDUAL FINGER JOINT STRENGTH. THE FEASIBILITY OF THE RESULTING MODEL WILL BE VERIFIED ON AN INDEPENDENT SET OF DATA. DEVELOPMENT OF AN ACOUSTO-ULTRASONIC NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION PROCEDURE FOR FINGER JOINT STRENGTH IN STRUCTURALWOOD MEMBERS WILL PROVIDE FOR CONFIDENCE IN PRODUCT PERFORMANCE THROUGH IMPROVED QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMS.